Classic French Toast (with Challah)

Classic French Toast

New York Times Cooking

We've always enjoyed "breakfast for dinner," usually comprising either omelets, pancakes or French toast (I'm not a fan of waffles, as they require far too much butter and syrup to make them palatable), and with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I find I'm adding these simple meals to our weekly rotation far more often than ever before. I like homemade buttermilk pancakes, but French toast has always come in second place when trying to decide between the two. Not anymore!

Until recently, I had always made French toast with a simple mixture of eggs and milk. No extra egg yolks, vanilla, salt or cream. And, the bread has always been a simple white sandwich variety (usually Oroweat's Country or Buttermilk). But all this changed a few weeks ago when I made my first loaf of challah (recipe shared here). It was so delicious and I was quite content eating a warm slice with a small pat of butter. But then I started reading comments about how great it is for French toast, so I began to search for a more sophisticated recipe than the one I'd been using for almost 40 years. I tried this simple recipe from the New York Times and couldn't get over how just a few changes to the ingredients could elevate such a basic recipe. Delicious!

Ingredients

2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 cups whole milk (1 3/4 cups milk, plus 2-4 Tbsp. heavy cream)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Unsalted butter (for cooking)
8 slices white bread, such as Pullman, brioche or challah, sliced 1/2-3/4 inch thick
Cinnamon sugar or granulated sugar (see tips)


In a shallow bowl or pie plate, whisk the eggs, additional yolks, milk/cream, vanilla and salt until foamy and smooth. 

Heat a large griddle (or a large, heavy nonstick skillet) to 350 degrees. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter until just sizzling. 

Place 2 slices of bread in the bowl with the egg mixture, turning them a few times until evenly saturated. Do not soak.

Remove bread, allowing any excess egg to drip back into the bowl. Place on griddle and repeat you run out of space. Cook the slices for about 2 minutes, until golden brown. Add another pat of butter to the griddle and flip the slices over, making sure that the freshly melted butter coats the bottoms of the bread slices. 

Continue cooking until the second side is golden brown. If using cinnamon sugar, dust one side, then flip over and dust the other side. 

Test for doneness by pressing the center. The dent should slowly spring back. If it remains, the interior is not yet cooked. Continue cooking over medium heat, flipping occasionally, until done. 

Serve immediately, or transfer to a plate in a preheated oven (200 degrees) to keep warm while cooking the remaining slices of bread. 

Top with maple syrup, berries, jam, sliced bananas - whatever you'd like.

Tip - Dusting the slices with sugar gives them a lacy, brown crust; plain or cinnamon can be used.

My Notes:

Hands down, challah is the best bread for French toast.

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Nutty Granola

My husband and I eat A LOT of granola. We usually toss some on top of our morning yogurt, but we also enjoy it for breakfast or a snack with some milk and fruit.

We've grown quite addicted to Trader Joe's Just the Clusters Vanilla Almond Granola Cereal, but I wanted to see if I could make something similar at home. I don't know if this recipe is healthier (somehow I doubt it, since it includes an entire stick of butter!), but it was pretty easy to throw together. I found this particular recipe in the July 2014 issue of Food & Wine.

Nutty Granola by Zoe Nathan

Food & Wine Magazine

1 lb. old-fashioned rolled oats (4 cups)
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup raw walnuts
1/3 cup raw pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds)
1/4 cup flaxseeds
1 cup dried cherries (4 oz.)
1 cup dried apricots, chopped (5 oz.)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a bowl, toss the oats, melted butter, honey, salt and cinnamon until evenly coated. Spread the oats on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, stirring once or twice, until just starting to brown. Add the coconut, almonds, walnuts, pepitas and flaxseeds and mix well. Bake for 25 minutes longer, stirring, until the granola is golden brown and nearly dry.

Remove from the oven and toss in the dried cherries and apricots.

Let the granola cool completely on the baking sheet, stirring occasionally.

The granola can be stored in an airtight container and will keep for 1 week. 

Yield: 10 cups

My Notes:

I lined my sheet pan with parchment paper.

I used pecans and sunflowers seeds, instead of pepitas and flaxseeds.

I omitted the cherries and accidentally added the apricots when I added the nuts and coconut. This was a mistake, as they wound up very tough and chewy.

Adding the sunflower seeds was fine, but they were salted, so this entire batch of granola tasted too salty for my liking. Next time, I will get raw, unsalted sunflower seeds and I might even reduce the kosher salt amount to just 1/2 teaspoon instead of 1 1/2 teaspoons.

Next time add some vanilla extract. Maybe 1 teaspoon.

This makes a lot of granola. I filled 2 large (quart-size) Mason jars and still had some left over.

I'm not sure why this wouldn't keep longer than just 1 week.

Looks pretty tasty, doesn't it? We liked it, but neither of us loved it. We'll see what happens when I try my modifications.

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Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend.